Arbour-like, and murmuring,
If I hear aright, with sound
As when human voices sing.
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Are the wavelets not like speech,
Breezes fondling each and each?
NYMPHS [to FAUST].
Oh come and lie down
In this coolness, refreshed
From your weariness, come,
For our counsel is best:
In this place you shall find
Your lost peace of mind;
Our murmuring, our whispering
Shall lull you to rest.
7270
FAUST. A waking vision!—Linger there,
Oh you sweet forms beyond compare,
Projected by my longing eyes!
What is this joy that fills me so?
I have once felt it, long ago:
Are these now dreams, or memories?
How fresh the leaves that gently move
On the dense bushes! Through this grove
Scarce-rippling streamlets steal their way
From all around; that shallow pool
7280
Unites a hundred springs, so cool
And clean, and there the maidens play!
Young healthy limbs, all mirrored clear
In the moist surface, so that here
My gaze redoubles its delight.
They bathe, a happy company;
The bold swim, some wade cautiously;
All ends in a shrill watery fight.
With these my eyes should drink their fill,
My mind should be content: but still
7290
It seeks what I have not yet seen.
My gaze would pierce that leafy wall,
That ring of verdure rich and tall,
That veil which hides the lofty queen.
And how strange! Now swans are coming,
From the streams and inlets swimming;
How majestically they drift!
Graceful, pure, in a gregarious
Motion, yet with calm self-glorious
Pride, as heads and beaks they lift…
7300
One alone, with swelling breast,
Seems serene above the rest,
Bold and swift his course prevails:
Plumage puffing and subsiding
Like the wave-tops he is riding,
To that holy place he sails …
The other swans swim to and fro,
Calmly their brilliant feathers glow,
But then in warlike style they tease
The maidens, and those timid beauties
7310
Are soon forgetful of their duties
As each her own pursuer flees.
NYMPHS. Sisters, listen, lay an ear
To the river-bank’s green ground!
If I hear aright, the sound
Of a horse’s hooves draws near.
Who is this that gallops past,
Rides tonight with news so fast?
FAUST. On the earth I hear a drumming
As of hurried hoof-beats coming.
7320
Far off I see
Good luck approaching me:
Can this already be
My wondrous destiny?
It is a horseman; I can tell
That he is bold and wise as well.
The steed he rides is gleaming white…
I recognize him—I am right—
Philyra’s great and famous son!—
Stop, Chiron, stop! I have to speak to you…
7330
CHIRON. What’s this? who? what?
FAUST. Tame your wild pace
CHIRON. I run
And never rest.
FAUST. Then take me with you too!
CHIRON. Jump up! Now I can ask you freely: where
Do you want to go? On the Peneus’ banks
I find you: we can cross if you prefer.
FAUST [mounting].
I will go where you like! Eternal thanks!…
Great, noble man, you who have won such fame
As mentor to so many heroes—need I name
The Argonauts’ prestigious company,
And all who built the world of poets’ fantasy!
7340
CHIRON. Well, let that rest. Small credit even the wise
Athene gets in her tutorial guise;
One’s pupils all just end as each is fated,
You’d never know they had been educated.
FAUST. The learned healer, every plant you know
By name, and how its deep roots grow;
You soothe the wounded, heal the sick—and here
I may embrace such strength, a mind so clear!
CHIRON. I treated many an injured friend
In battle, helped them to recover;
7350
But I gave up my practice in the end—
The witches and the priests took over.
FAUST. You act as truly great men do,
Disclaiming praise that is your due;
With an evasive modesty you speak,
Pretending you are not unique.
CHIRON. YOU do a wily flatterer’s job;
You’d please a prince or rouse a mob.
FAUST. Admit to me at least and say:
You saw the noblest heroes of your day—
7360
You longed for great deeds; how austere your life,
A demigod’s, an emulating strife!—
Say now, of all those valiant men you knew,
Which of them seemed the worthiest to you?
CHIRON. The Argonauts—all were magnificent;
But in his own way each was excellent,
Inspired by some particular energy,
Outstanding in some special quality
The others lacked. Zeus’s Celestial Twins*
Were always first where youthful beauty wins
7370
Renown; when swift resolve and help were needed,
The winged Boreads all the rest exceeded;
Jason led well, sagacious, strong, and wise
In councils, and he pleased all women’s eyes;
The contemplative tender Orpheus played
His lyre, and all with wonder were dismayed;
Steered by far-sighted Lynceus, night and day
The sacred ship pursued its perilous way.
Danger faced with companions—that’s the test:
When one acts, and earns praise from all the rest.
7380
FAUST. And Hercules—did he not play a part?
CHIRON. Oh, do not stir that passion in my heart!..
Apollo I had never met,
Nor what’s their names, Ares or Hermes yet,
When suddenly these eyes of mine
Beheld one whom mankind hail as divine.
Oh, he was born a king, and he
Grew up a youth most beautiful;
Yet humbly did his elder brother’s will
And served fair women most devotedly.
7390
Earth will not bear his like again,
Nor Hebe carry heavenwards
Another such. Vain here are poets’ words,
And sculptors hack their stones in vain.
FAUST. Yet in your own words he is most
Alive, for all the sculptors’ boast.
Now of the finest man I’ve heard from you:
Describe the loveliest woman too!
CHIRON. What!… Female beauty’s a mere mask,
Too often formal, cold and dead.
7400
Give me a living fountain-head
Of lively appetite for life, that’s what I ask!
Beauty remains serene and self-sufficing:
But grace is irresistibly enticing.
As Helen was, when once she rode me.
FAUST. You carried her?
CHIRON. Yes, she bestrode me.
FAUST. Oh, am I not enough c
onfused
With joy! The very seat she used!
CHIRON. Indeed, and by the hair she grasped me tight,
As you are doing.
FAUST. Oh delight
7410
Beyond endurance! Tell me, how—
She is my only passion now!—
When did she ride you, where and why?
CHIRON. That I can answer easily.
It was when bandits took her prisoner;
The Twins* came to her rescue. But those men,
Unused to such defeats, gave chase again
With renewed rage, nearly recapturing her:
She and her brothers faltered in mid course
At the Eleusinian swamp; I got across
7420
Splashing and swimming, the Twins waded; then
She jumped down, stroked my mane, all wet
It was, and thanked me; how can I forget
Her charming self-assurance, and how wise
Her sweet youth was, what joy to my old eyes!
FAUST. A little girl of ten!…
CHIRON. You, I perceive,
Are misled by those scholars’ make-believe.
Mythical woman is a special case:
The poets freely choose her changing face.
She never need grow up, grow old,
7430
Or lose her looks; abducted, so we’re told,
As a young girl, wooed as an aged crone.
In short, the bard’s not bound by time—he makes his own.
FAUST. So let it be with her: let no time bind her!
On Pherae* did not great Achilles find her,
Himself being outside time? What strange delight,
To win such love, defying fate’s dark might!
And shall I not, by passion’s power, draw
Back into life that unique form I saw?
Eternal, godlike being, tender as she
7440
Is noble, lovely in her sublimity!
You saw her once—I have seen her today;
She charms my eyes, she charms my heart away,
She rules me now, my fixed, my guiding star:
I cannot live till I find Helena!
CHIRON. My dear sir, as a man you are entranced;
As spirits, we should call it an advanced
State of derangement. Luckily for you
It is my annual habit, for a few
Moments, to visit Manto: she’s the daughter
7450
Of Aesculapius. Silently she prays
To him that doctors in these latter days
May at last do him honour, mend their ways
And darkened minds, and cease their insolent slaughter
Of patients… She’s the Sibyl I like best:
Not always in a fidget like the rest,
But calm and a good influence. Stay with her
A while: her medicines guarantee your cure.
FAUST. I want no weakling’s cure! I will not be
Like the contemptible majority!
7460
CHIRON. This noble healing fountain you should taste.
Dismount now! We are here: no time to waste.
FAUST. Through stony streams you have carried me somehow
On this wild night; where have I landed now?
CHIRON. Here Rome and Greece, Peneus on the right,
Olympus on the left, fought their great fight;*
A mighty empire vanished in the sand,
Kings fled, the burgher gained the upper hand.
Look! The eternal temple, close and clear,
Looms over us in the moonlight here.
7470
MANTO* [in the temple, dreaming].
With tremor of hooves
My sacred threshold moves.
Demigods are approaching.
CHIRON. It is so!
Open your eyes to know!
MANTO [waking].
Welcome! You keep your tryst, I see.
CHIRON. Your temple stands and waits for me.
MANTO. So tirelessly you wander still.
CHIRON. Yours is the peace by stillness bounded
I need to circle round at will.
7480
MANTO. I wait, by circling time surrounded.
What stranger’s here?
CHIRON. This night of ill fame caught him
Into its vortex and has brought him
To us. His mind is much elated:
With Helen he’s infatuated,
And has no notion how to start.
The case deserves your Aesculapian art.
MANTO. On the impossible he sets his heart;
Such men I love.
[CHIRON is already in the distance.]
So enter with good cheer,
Rash wooer! Down through this dark passage here,
7490
In Olympus’ deep core, Persephone
Waits for forbidden greetings secretly.
I smuggled Orpheus in once this way too;
Use your chance better. Come now, down with you
[They descend.]
10c-BY THE UPPER PENEUS, as before]
THE SIRENS. Plunge into Peneus’ stream!
We must play and we must swim
And with singing long and loud
Comfort this unhappy crowd.
Where there’s water there’s salvation!
Now let our whole company
7500
Hasten to the Aegean Sea:
All shall there be jubilation.
[An earthquake strikes.]
Now the river churned to foam
Leaves the bed that was its home;
Earth is trembling, waters choke,
Banks and pebbles burst and smoke.
Flee this prodigy, come, hide!
Such a peril none can bide.
Come away, each noble guest:
By the sea our feast is best.
7510
Quivering waves that glint and gleam
Wet the shore in swelling stream,
And one moon shines out like two,
Moistening us with holy dew:
There is freedom, life and motion—
Here the shattered earth’s commotion.
From the depths what terrors rise!
Leave this place, all who are wise.
SEISMOS* [rumbling and banging in the depths].
One more heave and one more shove,
And I’ll be there, up above,
7520
Out into the light of day;
No one there gets in my way.
THE SPHINXES. How unpleasant is this quaking,
Ugly shuddering and shaking,
Sudden jolts and sudden shocks,
To and fro the whole place rocks;
How offensive a display!
But we’ll sit and not be shifted,
Though the roof of hell be lifted.
Now, how strange! an arch of stone
7530
Heaves in sight. That old man’s known
Well to us: for it was he
Who raised Delos from the sea,
Leto’s isle, that she might bear
Phoebus and his sister there.
How he strives and strains and presses!
Adas-like, with shoulders bent
And stiff-armed, see, he has sent
Sod and soil up, earth in masses,
Stones and gravel, sand and clay—
7540
Tears our peaceful banks away,
Lifts the valley’s quiet lid,
Interrupts the river’s course,
Thrusting up with tireless force,
A colossal caryatid:
Monstrous stonework he has carried
On his head, though still half buried.
But here ends his upstart story:
This is sphinxes’ territory.
SEISMOS. All this is my unaided work,
7550
And in the end they�
��ll give me credit.
Without me here to quake and jolt and jerk,
Where would earth’s beauty be? I made it!—
Where would your mountains be, that rise
Splendid in pure ethereal blue,
If I’d not reared them out for you
And shaped that picture to enchant your eyes?
My earliest ancestors of all
Were Night and Chaos; I was strong,
I grew up with the Titans; before long
7560
With Pelion and Ossa we played ball.
In youthful rashness on we sported,
Till for a lark we finally transported
Both of those mountains through the air
And gave Parnassus a twin cap to wear…
Apollo to this day amuses
Himself there with the blessed Muses;
And even for Zeus the Thunderer, I
Fashioned his throne and raised it high.
Just so, with monstrous efforts, as you see
7570
I have emerged from the abyss,
And now demand new life to go with this:
Happy inhabitants to live on me!
THE SPHINXES. Here’s a mountain we should now
Judge to be of ancient birth,
Had we not just witnessed how
It was churned up from the earth.
New rocks in their convulsions still compound it
Even as dense forest grows already round it.
A sphinx need be no whit perturbed:
7580
We shall remain enthroned and undisturbed.
THE GRIFFINS. Gold in leaves and gold in slivers:
Through the fissures, look, it quivers!
Ants, come, claw this treasure free,
Seize your opportunity!
CHORUS OF ANTS. The giants thrust
This mountain up somehow:
Creepy-crawlies, we must
Climb up it now.
Quick, scuttle in and out!
7590
These rocks contain
A fortune: we must find
The smallest grain.
We must investigate
Even the tiniest
Cranny immediately:
Hurry, make haste!
Come, swarming host,
Swarm about busily!
Bring gold: the barren stone,
7600
Leave it alone.
THE GRIFFINS. Come, pile it up! Pile up the gold!
We’ll stretch our claws and take good hold,
And it will be well locked and barred:
No treasure that our grip can’t guard.
PYGMIES. Here’s a spot to occupy.
Where we’re from we’ve no idea.
No use asking how or why;
We just happen to be here.
Life is quick to find its place,
7610
Glad of any new terrain:
Give us cracks in the rock face,
And the dwarves pop up again.
Male and female, dwarfish twosome,
Toiling gladly cleft by cleft;
Was it thus in nature’s bosom,
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